Comments for Easton, Sheena, No Strings

As far as jazz albums by pop singers go, "No Strings" ranks right up there with Natalie Cole`s "Unforgettable," Carly Simon`s "My Romance," and Miki Howard`s "Miki Sings Billie-A Tribute to Billie Holiday." Sheena shows a spectacular flair for some of jazz music`s best loved tunes: she gives an impassioned reading of "Body and Soul," a perfect amount of melancholy on "The Man That Got Away," and lets herself genuinely swing on "How Deep is the Ocean" and "Never Will I Marry." "If You Go Away (Ne Me Quitte Pas)" is a song that vocalists don`t cover often, and with good reason; the melody and haunting lyrics require a most adept interpretation, but Sheena more than rises to the occasion. And her version of "The Nearness of You" (featured in several episodes of "General Hospital" when the album was newer) is arguably one of the most beautiful readings of this fine tune ever recorded. Some of Sheena`s earlier pop material may have been trite and fluffy, but any flaws you find with those records certainly can`t lie in her technical abilities, as "No Strings" triumphantly proves.